Wayne — once a homeless teen himself — left New Year's Day for his Meet Me Halfway campaign walk to Phoenix. (Read more about it here.)

Wayne’s label chief, Scott Borchetta, announced that Big Machine Records and Valory Music were donating $50,000 to his cause just before Wayne left from Monroe Harding, a Nashville facility for foster children and at-risk youths, on the morning of Jan. 1.

Label employees and fans turned out to see him off; check out a photo gallery of the departure here.

Wayne is updating fans and followers during his walk via Twitter (Twitter.com/JimmyWayne); he has picked up about 450 followers since announcing this effort.

On Saturday he wrote: “Been walking all day; suns goin down; its strange 2 C people look away; then again a familiar thing from long ago!”